Every year we like to do a few furniture makeovers, primarily to use as props for our pillows and accessories that we sell at the annual Christmas Craft Market in Hope, NJ.
We don’t consider ourselves seasoned upholsterers so we offer these pieces at a fraction of what they sell for at retailers like Wayfair and Home Goods. And, by the end of every show, we have sold all our furniture props!
Today I am sharing two furniture flips – one is a wing back chair and the other is an ottoman. And as you’ll find out at the end of this post, both pieces are available for purchase!
Upholstered Wing Back Chair
This chair was a road side find. It was structurally sound and had no funky odors. It was missing a seat cushion.
We love the subtle heart shaped back. It’s a bit unexpected and that’s what appeals to us!
Inspiration for the makeover came from this magazine photo:
I like the deconstructed design of the chair in the photo and I thought my chair would lend itself well to this look.
This isn’t a step by step post because you can find really professional ones on Youtube but my basic approach is to remove all of the existing fabric and pull out all the nails or staples which held it in place. I save the pieces to use as templates for the new fabric.
Before reupholstering, I painted the legs and arms using Miss Mustard Seed’s milk paint in “grain sack”. I let the paint chip off a bit and then sealed the finish with a couple coats of polyacrylic which I prefer over polyurethane which tends to yellow over time.
The tools I use for upholstery are a portable air compressor, a Porter + Cable upholstery gun and nail/staple puller all of which you can see here.
For this chair, I used burlap on the outside of the chair and chair cushion and off white canvas on the interior of the chair. After stapling the pieces in place, I trim them down and then cover the raw edges with trim which is hot glued in place.
Here’s how we styled it with a rose colored knitted pillow from our shop:
And with a stenciled antler pillow from our shop:
And here with an upcycled leather pillow from our shop:
This is the beauty of a neutral chair — just change out your pillow or throw for a totally different look!
To add more value to this rescued chair, we decided to give it two looks by making an additional slipcover for the seat cushion using a wool plaid decorator fabric. The slipcover easily zips on and off. We love the red plaid cushion for its festive holiday feel and cozy, wintry look.
Upholstered Ottoman
The second piece is a round ottoman that we picked up at a garage sale. It’s the perfect size – not too big and not to small and it can be layered with a tray for use as a side table, too! Unfortunately I got ahead of myself and didn’t take any before photos!
Here’s the photo that inspired this makeover:
I thought the plaids were really cute on these ottomans. Since the pieces are small, the plaid doesn’t overwhelm!
Again we first removed the old fabric and all the nails. We kept the original padding as it was in good shape. We then painted the legs and crossbars a satin black.
We used the same plaid fabric that we used on the chair, cutting a round piece to fit the top, and strip of fabric wide and long enough to go around the ottoman, and two narrower strips for the top and bottom edges to make cord cover. I sewed the cord cover to the perimeter of the top piece and then sewed on the piece for the sides. I added a layer of batting over the existing padding and then laid the new fabric over the ottoman and stapled it in place on the underside.
We love the festive look this ottoman has!
At the show, we change up our displays as items sell so to give us flexibility, we decided to also do a slipcover for this ottoman.
Drop cloths are my go to for slipcovers. They are inexpensive and machine washable. I’ve used them throughout my own home and can attest to how well they wash and wear! I sewed up a cute slipcover with a tailored pleated skirt. This slipcover gives the ottoman a totally different look!
Again, plaid for winter …
And a neutral but classy look for the rest of the year …
Circumstances prevented us from participating in the Hope Christmas Craft market this year, so both the chair and ottoman are available for purchase. While we are skilled sewers, we still consider ourselves amateur upholsterers. So we offer these pieces at less than market value. The chair with slipcover is available for $150 and the ottoman with slipcover for $95. Both are listed in our Etsy store. We can’t ship them but if you are local to eastern PA or the Jersey shore, they are available for pickup.
Hope you are enjoying a quiet, relaxing post-Christmas week!
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